Issue 444 Out of country pharmacies October 21, 2014

Similar to yesterday’s article on medical tourism, we have people shipping in medications that are approved from one country to another to take advantage of the cheaper costs.  Here is how it works.

Prescriptions from out of country:  Well it is all about the costs.  You can get a drug for your physical condition cheaper than you would in your home country like the United States.  The reasons are simple.  For one, there are is less regulations in some countries while still maintaining the same quality of medication.  Due to the lower costs involved in producing the medication (less bureaucracy) means that the drugs will be much cheaper.  Stated another way, it is less involved to produce and dispense a drug in Canada then it is in the United States.  Also, some countries allow generic drugs to stay on the market longer.  This means older, or copies of the medications are more readily available, hence a cheaper price due to a larger supply.  From there you simply need a prescription from a doctor to give to a pharmacy in the neighboring country to give them the authority to fill the prescription and ship it to you.  I have seen plenty of my patients at the pharmacy I work at brag that they can get their drugs cheaper in Canada or Mexico, which saves them anywhere from $20 to thousands of dollars a year.  

Possible problems:  The main issue with this however, is that quality control (depending on the country) may not be up to par with Countries like the United States and Canada.  As such, you may be getting a weaker medication (thus less effective treatments).  Also, older generics of medications and older medications in general may have more side effects.  So there is a potential health risk for using a drug that other countries have ceased using.  But so long as you keep these risks in mind you can have cheaper health care.

Conclusion:  I want my patients to save money, because drugs are really darn expensive.  Hell, I remember a patient buying their three medications (a month supply each) out of pocket, and that cost them well over $3,000.  It was horrible to watch, but they needed it.  However, even if my pharmacy loses money I want people to save money for the drugs they need.  So let them get their medicine from wherever they can, so long as it is effective and cheap.